MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Lewis C. Cantley, Ph.D., an internationally renowned cancer scientist, will deliver the 2014 Laurence and Jean DeLynn Lecture at 3:30 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 8 in the West Virginia University Health Sciences Center’s Fukushima Auditorium.
Dr. Cantley’s discovery of a family of enzymes fundamental to understanding cancer biology earned him one of the world’s most prestigious academic honors in medicine and biology – the 2013 Breakthrough in Life Sciences Prize.
His research team discovered the PI3-kinase signal transduction pathway, which plays a critical role in many aspects of diverse types of cancer. His more than 20 years of pioneering work in this area has led to one of the most promising avenues for the development of personalized cancer therapies and has already resulted in revolutionary treatments for not just cancer but also diabetes and autoimmune diseases. Cantley is speaking on “Targeting PI3-kinase for Cancer Therapy.”
“Seldom does a university get to honor and celebrate the talents of a pre-eminent scientist on its campus,” Scot C. Remick, M.D., director of the WVU Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center, said. “We are delighted that Dr. Cantley accepted our invitation as the 2014 DeLynn Lecturer.”
Currently, Cantley is the Margaret and Herman Sokol Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York and director of the Sandra and Edward Meyer Cancer Center at Weill Cornell Medical College and New York Presbyterian Hospital. In addition to numerous other awards for his research, he is also a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the National Academy of Sciences.
Cantley graduated suma cum laude with a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from West Virginia Wesleyan College and obtained his Ph.D. in biophysical chemistry from Cornell University. He did his postdoctoral research at Harvard and was on the faculty at Harvard Medical School, where he was chief of the division of signal transduction and then director at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
Jean and Laurence DeLynn established the DeLynn Lecture Series in 1992 with an endowed gift to the WVU Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center. The series provides educational and informational presentations in the area of cancer research, treatment, education, and prevention.
For more than two decades, WVU has welcomed prominent and prestigious speakers, such as Cantley, to lecture on campus thanks to the generosity of the DeLynn family. Past speakers include ABC News correspondent Sam Donaldson, former White House Chief of Staff Hamilton Jordan, and Michael Phelps, the inventor of PET scanning technology.
For information about the DeLynn Lecture see http://wvucancer.org/education/Seminars/Delynn.
